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Crowds gather at Ground Zero in New York

MARK COLVIN: But in America there is a sense of celebration. The ABC's Alice Brennan is in New York. She's spent the last few hours in Lower Manhattan close to Ground Zero.

She spoke to me on a mobile phone from the crowd there a short time ago.

ALICE BRENNAN: A little way from the crowd on the corner of Vesey and Church Street, right down in Ground Zero in the middle of New York City, and it's quite an incredible scene here. There are about 2,000 people. It's a sea of American flags and jubilant faces.

MARK COLVIN: It's well after midnight there so that's a big crowd for that time of night.

ALICE BRENNAN: The crowd is mainly made up of young people but they don't look like they're going home any time soon, I can tell you. The time of the morning has made no difference to the sense of joy and festivity that seems to be here at the moment.

MARK COLVIN: I can hear shouting in the background. What kind of things are they saying?

ALICE BRENNAN: Well when I first came here about an hour-and-a-half ago, the main chant was 'USA! USA!' That changed to 'Yes, we can!' the obvious motto that Barack Obama sported before his election to his presidency.

Not so long ago, there was a man - a marine, he was - who climbed up the lamp post that's sort of hanging above the main crowd here and he started singing 'Ding, Dong the witch is dead' over and over again and the crowd joined in. That was quite animating moment in itself.

MARK COLVIN: And you are at ground zero - what, just looking around you and you're living around there at the moment, I think. What is the progress nine-and-a-half years on of the rebirth of the World Trade Centre, how it's going to look?

ALICE BRENNAN: I've got quite a vantage point where I'm standing at the moment. I'm a little raised up the hill. I can see the crowd but behind the crowd all I can see is scaffolding and cranes. And there's this incredible new development that's taking place down at Ground Zero.

The progress is - it's good here. The development seems to be moving forward very rapidly at the moment.

MARK COLVIN: Okay, and I think you've got somebody for us to talk to.

ALICE BRENNAN: I do. His name is George McEvoy. He's the brother of a fireman who was - who died during September 11th.

MARK COLVIN: Hi George. Tell me what this day means to you.

GEORGE MCEVOY: Uh, well it's the first time I've been down to this World Trade Centre site and actually there's a celebratory feeling. So it's partly bittersweet. My brother was a great guy and you know, but hopefully it will end some of the craziness that goes on in this world - hopefully.

MARK COLVIN: What do you feel about bin Laden himself? I mean, have you over the last nearly a decade read and thought a lot about this man?

GEORGE MCEVOY: Yeah, I have. I actually thought that they would never find him, they would never pick him up. I actually believed that it was like not - that it became less important as time went on. I'm happy they got him. I'm hoping he's the one who organised all this and that he's getting exactly what he deserves.

And my feeling, I hope is that people come to their senses and stop killing each other over disagreements in religion.

MARK COLVIN: It's clear that there is a feeling of great celebration there but Al-Qaeda is still there and in any case - you said it was bittersweet. Do you feel just jubilation or is it more mixed?

GEORGE MCEVOY: It's more mixed. I'm not a vengeful person. However, I do believe that this guy caused a situation that became worldwide. I mean, we lost 3,000 Americans at the World Trade Centre, probably another 10,000 soldiers - tens of thousands of innocent Muslim civilians around the world have been killed because of this. So it is bittersweet.

MARK COLVIN: George McEvoy, the brother of one of the fire fighters killed on September the 11th, 2001. He was speaking from New York - from Ground Zero, in fact. And our reporter there was Alice Brennan.